In 1998, the Digital Display Working Group (DDWG) was formed to create a universal interface standard between computers and displays to replace the analog VGA connection standard. The resulting standard was the Digital Visual Interface (DVI) specification, released in April 1999.
There are a number of content protection schemes available. For example, HDCP and DTCP are well-known content protection schemes. HDCP was proposed as a security component for DVI and was designed for digital video monitor interfaces.
HDMI is a connection standard that combines DVI and HDCP. HDMI was developed to meet the explosive demand for high-definition audio and video. Both DVI and HDMI have two key advantages. First, both integrate all video and sound signals onto a single, thin cable, thereby substantially simplifying the connection of components. Second, the content sent over the cable remains in its original, uncompressed digital format.
HDCP is a system for protecting content being transferred over DVI and HDMI from being copied. See HDCP 1.0. HDCP provides authentication, encryption, and revocation. Specialized circuitry in the playback device and in the display monitor encrypts video data before it is sent over. With HDCP, content is encrypted immediately before (or inside) the DVI or HDMI transmitter chip and decrypted immediately after (or inside) the DVI or HDMI receiver chip.
In addition to the encryption and decryption functions, HDCP implements authentication to verify that the receiving device (e.g., a display, a television, etc.) is licensed to receive encrypted content. Re-authentication occurs approximately every two seconds to continuously confirm the security of the DVI or HDMI interface. If, at any time, re-authentication does not occur, for example by disconnecting a device and/or connecting an illegal recording device, the source device (e.g., a DVD player, a set-top box, etc.) ends transmission of encrypted content.
While discussions of HDMI and DVI are generally focused on wired communication, the use of wireless communication to transmit content has become more prevalent every day. While much of the current focus is on cellular technologies and wireless networks, there has been a growing interest in the unlicensed spectrum around 60 GHz. More specifically, 7 GHz of contiguous bandwidth has been opened for unlicensed use at millimeter-wave frequencies around 60 GHz in the U.S. and Japan.